Acxa
Acxa is a former general of the Galra Empire and one of Prince Lotor's former top generals. She was rescued by Keith after he found her ship trapped inside a Weblum. She is an excellent shot and seems to adhere to a code of honor, having an opportunity to kill Keith but choosing instead to spare him and leave with a share of scaultrite. After Lotor kills Narti she and the other generals question their loyalty to Lotor. Although she was the last one to remain loyal to Lotor, she was also the first one to betray him by being the one to shoot and stun Lotor and attempt to turn him in to the Galra in hopes that her and the others lives will be spared in return. After Zarkon's death, she was imprisoned alongside Ezor and Zethrid, before being freed and recruited by Haggar. Her alliance with Haggar was a ruse as she was an undercover agent for Lotor since season 4. This re-alliance is only temporary, as Acxa and the other generals, break off their alliance with Lotor for good in the next fight. She and the others are ejected into space. Sometime between seasons 6 and 7, Acxa disagreed with Zethrid and Ezor's plans and went into her own path, therefore switching sides and helped both Coran and Keith, and ultimately vowed to help the Voltron Coalition. Biography Pre-Series Not much is known about Acxa's past, however, in the Grudge, she tells Veronica that she was "born and bred in war." It implies that she was accustomed to war from a young age. She then goes on to add how in order to survive in such an environment, she "had to become worst than her enemies." Later on when talking with Zethrid, she recalls when she first met Zethrid and presumably the other generals, and at this time of their life, were filled with anger and resentment for being rejected for not being full galra. Season 2 Acxa is first seen in "The Belly of the Weblum" where she is stuck inside a fighter inside the belly of a Weblum when Keith unintentionally lands on the window. She does not talk at all during the meeting, and wears her helmet with the vizor tinted black, as to conceal her face. After a few rough moments she proves herself when she shoots a few of the Weblum's bacteria. From then on Acxa becomes Keith's ally in the Weblum, to the point that they have each others' backs against the streams of the bacteria. She betrays Keith's trust once they recover the scaultrite, however, when she points her gun at Keith and leaves with a bag of scaultrite Season 3 In season 3, Acxa first appears "Changing of the Guard" where she sits in the crowd in the gladiator arena. She is hidden and sits in formation around Throk and reveals herself once Lotor addresses him. Later, she is seen waiting for Lotor with the other generals. In "Red Paladin", Acxa leads a coup to recapture Puig while sporting her black-tinted helmet. She tasks the generals with their duties, but orders them not to kill anyone. She's then attacked by Puigian resistors, to which she entraps in a holographic tube. Afterwards she, along with Lotor and the other generals, are seen confronting the Puigian Leader, where she accuses him of speaking to Lotor without permission. In "The Hunted", Acxa along with the other generals man the Royal Cruiser as Lotor tests out the Voltron Paladins. When the Paladins give chase, Lotor gets into his fighter and plans to lead Voltron to Thayserix, which Acxa reconfigures the fighter to account for the planet's unusual magnetic properties. During Lotor's mission, she with the other generals watch from the crusier. When Zethrid gets antsy because Lotor is not attacking the paladins, she explains to her that the atmosphere - filled with synthian nitrate - would explode if he did. She later is seen calling backup for Lotor. In "Hole in the Sky", Acxa along with Lotor waits out the Paladins' trip to visit the alternate reality, and is seen correcting Ezor for calling the alternate reality "another dimension." She is presumably one of the generals who go and retrieve the transreality comet when voltron drops it when they escape the alternate reality. In "The Journey" the Royal Cruiser keeps sending a signal that they're being followed, which confuses Acxa as the only way for the ship to detect something following them yet remain hidden is only if the they were Galra and had the Cruiser's protocols. She is last seen exclaiming that it was a Galra fighter who is following them and is likely present when they confront the perpitrator - General Raht, who was sent by Haggar to spy on Lotor. Acxa is seen leading another coup with the other generals in "Tailing a Comet", where they attack Throk's base in the Ulippa System. There she is seen taking down a few of the guards and then admonishing Zethrid when Zethrid proclaims she wants to go at Throk, telling her that she must "stick to the plan." After Narti defeats Throk and has him release the piece of the Teludav, which is what the generals were after, Acxa and the generals return to the Galra ship to find the Paladins there. The two teams engage in a fight, where Acxa locks weapons with Keith, and Keith gets a memory back to when they were allies. Ezor separates them and Acxa goes to attack Lance. Once the Paladins leave Acxa and Narti board their Sincline ship and pursue them and engages a fight with the Castle of Lions and Voltron to distract both from the Teludav under Lotor's supervision. When Lotor orders Acxa to shoot Voltron, the beam accidentally hits the Teludav. Acxa is last seen in the season being admonished by Lotor who is very disappointed in her apparent failure. Season 4 Acxa appears in "Code of Honor" where she informs Lotor that High Priestess Haggar is requesting his presence. She along with the other generals is present when Haggar admonishes Lotor for neglecting his duties as Emperor and for staying hidden from sight. In "Black Site" Acxa informs Lotor that Zarkon requests his presence on Central Command. Knowing that Zarkon intends to fire him, Lotor leaves her and Ezor in charge of overseeing construction of the Sincline ships while he along with Narti leave for Zarkon's Central Command. She is seen later after Haggar possesses Narti where she informs Lotor that 60% of the comet's ore has been used in the creation of the first two Sincline ships. After the Royal fleet attacks the Cruiser, she along with Lotor and the other generals are seen attempting to escape in the Sincline ships before Lotor attacks and attacks Narti. Leaving Narti and Kova behind, they escape on the ships while Zarkon declares Lotor and the generals as traitors to be killed on sight. In "Begin the Blitz", Acxa is driving the Sincline ship to the coordinates that Lotor demands they visit when Ezor closes their communications and voices how Lotor is on the run and that they're in danger from the empire since they are his generals. Acxa shuts her down, saying that they must trust Lotor. At the mention of Narti, she backs down momentarily, before restating that as his generals Lotor will protect them. Later when they reach the ruins of planet Daibazaal and Lotor reveals his plans Acxa misleadingly states that she has never had a doubt in Lotor. After Lotor uses all of their concentrated quintessence in attempt to enter the gate in the rift, Acxa is visibly distressed. After the failure of the gate, Acxa is the first to betray Lotor by shooting in the back while stating it's "for Narti." Afterwards, she and the other generals intend to turn Lotor in to the empire, but he escapes. When Zethrid points out they lost their chance at redemption, Acxa is last seen stating that there's "one option left." Season 5 Acxa appears at the end of "The Prisoner," where she is seen making an offer to Zarkon so she and the other generals can be pardoned for associating with Lotor. Later on, she appears in "Blood Duel" where she along with Ezor and Zethrid are seen guarding Sam Holt as Zarkon announces a trade with Team Voltron - for Team Voltron to turn in Lotor, and in exchange, they get Sam Holt. Afterwards she along with her teammates and Zarkon arrive at the designated meeting place where the deal is exchange. There, she guards Lotor, who knocks her down and goes to attack Zarkon. She then joins Ezor and Zethrid inside the ship where they leave with the real Sam Holt. Pidge, Shiro, and Matt Holt follow her and the others and enter the ship where the two factions clash. She, Ezor, and Zethrid are defeated and ejected from the ship mid-flight and are last seen in the episode on the ground. In "Postmortem," she and the other generals are seen locked up in a cell. She sulks that they'll never see the new regime, but then the door opens to reveal that Haggar plans to recruit them. Haggar gives her and the other generals the task to return with Sendak, and Haggar will pardon their past misdeeds. She appears at the end of the episode alongside the other generals with Sendak. Afterwards in "Kral Zera," Haggar takes her, the other generals, and Sendak to the Kral Zera ceremony. She guards Haggar and protects her from enemy fire as the event descends into chaos after the explosives the Blade of Marmora set go off and the blame is placed on Lotor. When Commander Gnov attacks Keith, she intercepts the blow and shoots her in the hands, causing the commander to drop her blade. After Keith defeats Gnov, the two exchange an annoyed expression, after which she returns to Haggar, who declares the empire fallen. She with the other generals appears in "White Lion," where she, Ezor, and Zethrid discuss while they wait for Haggar's orders. She shut downs Zethrid's idea on taking out commanders and staking out territory for themselves. They leave her behind to torment the ship's crew, and she's last seen being directed by Haggar to take them to Oriande. Season 6 Acxa makes a brief appearance in "Omega Shield," where Haggar directs her to take their ship as close as they can to Oriande. She doesn't appear again until "The Colony," where she and Ezor arrive at the Castle of Lions to steal the other two Sincline ships. She takes off with the Sincline ship Allura helped build, but they are pursued by Team Voltron, who promptly form Voltron because Shiro, who has taken Lotor on a pod, is now with them. "The Black Paladins" starts with the fight "The Colony" ended on, where Acxa and the other generals face off Voltron. Together, they take down Voltron and mess with its power core. Once Voltron is distracted, she and the others escape on Haggar's wormhole. Keith in the Black Lion follows them in. Acxa tells the other generals to escort Lotor to Haggar while she'll handle Keith. She and Keith fight, but as Keith is distracted by Shiro who Haggar had ordered to distract him, she returns to the main ship. There she and the other generals present Lotor to Haggar, who reveals to Lotor that she's Honerva. This surprises Acxa, who at the end of the exchange, shoots at Haggar. Lotor reveals that Acxa has been on Lotor's side the whole time, and the generals splitting from Lotor was part of his plan. Acxa tells Lotor that they will need to make multiple hyperspace jumps to return to Voltron at the ruins of Daibazaal. She and the rest of Team Sincline appear in "All Good Things" where they arrive at the ruins of Daibazaal where they are awaited by Team Voltron. She tells Lotor that the rift gate is destroyed, and Lotor tries to negotiate peace between them and Team Voltron. Acxa becomes increasingly stressed as Lotor admits to killing Alteans, but still resolves to attack Voltron when Allura fires at Lotor. When it's clear that Allura refuses to side with Lotor, Lotor has Acxa and the generals attack Team Voltron, until Lotor admits that he plans to eradicate all his enemies, including the Galra. After her initial shock, Acxa resolves to cut ties with Lotor for good, and tells the other generals to follow her lead. They turn to leave the battle, but Lotor ejects them from the ship, ignoring Acxa's pleas. Acxa, Ezor, and Zethrid are last seen flying away from the now full combined Sincline. Season 7 After being ejected from the sincline ships and before "The Road Home", Acxa and her companions had witnessed the battle between Voltron and Lotor with the former emerging from the Quintessence Field victorious, only to suddenly disappear in an explosion that sealed a massive time-space rift Lotor had inadvertently created. Marooned on an meteoroid for days, the three generals were eventually discovered by a Galra cruiser sent to investigate Lotor's disappearance and took it over. Zethrid and Ezor decided to become warlords but Acxa decided to find her own path. Three years later, she intercepted a transmission from the missing Paladins and learns that Zethrid and Ezor had captured the Paladins and infiltrates their cruiser to rescue them. She rescues Coran, who managed to evade initial capture. Acxa devised a plan to fire the ion cannon sitting in the same hanger as the Lions in order to force a lock down of all the hangers while Coran rescues his companions. As she was charging the cannon, the Galra pirate whose uniform Coran stole, woke up and sounded the alarm, forcing Acxa to fire the ion cannon, flushing the Lions into space. She managed to escape the compromised hanger and came face-to-face with Zethrid and Ezor. The two of them tease her for coming to the aid of the paladins, proclaiming that she showed interest in Keith cause she never wanted to hurt him in the past. Acxa engages in a fight with them. Eventually, they managed to overpower her before Keith came to her rescue; Ezor and Zethrid teased her apparent affection for Keith. Eventually, Acxa and Keith are thrown into a room full of synthian nitrate canisters. Keith orders the Lions to fire on his location as he grabs Acxa and flies them to safety. Once their party had found safety on a barren planet, Acxa was surprised to hear that the Paladins were unaware of the time had past. She updated her new friends over everything that has happened in the past three years. She then regrets having supported Lotor and vows to help the Voltron Coalition to make up for her sins. Acxa eventually reappears in "Lions' Pride, Part 2", and travels to Earth, she watches Keith and Krolia visiting Keith's father's grave from afar. Season 8 Acxa makes a cameo appearance initially in "the Prisoner's Dilemma," where she is seen at the end of the episode where Keith gives a speech on uniting the galra. She is later the focus character in "the Grudge," where she appears initially at the beginning performing stretches while Veronica, Commander Iverson, and Curtis talk about their experiences with pets. Curtis asks Acxa if she ever had one, with Acxa denying it but adding that one of her companions, Narti did. She goes on to add that Narti was killed and Kova was abandoned when she, Lotor, and the rest of the generals abadoned the ship, to the surprise of the people listening. Acxa reappears later in the episode, where she's eating alone in the Atlas Cafeteria. Veronica invites her to sit with her and MFE pilots. At the table, things turn awkward as Veronica and Leifsdottir make insensitive comments about Acxa's galra heritage, the latter's comments much to Acxa's shock. She is later seen in the Altas practice firing range where she is joined by Veronica, much to Acxa's annoyance. Believing Veronica to be following her because she doesn't trust her, Acxa confronts Veronica, who claims she was following Acxa because she wants to get to know Acxa better. Acxa tells Veronica about her past, and how she believes that galra are likely not capable of change. Veronica goes on to reassure her as the Atlas crew is called to save Team Voltron from Zethrid's pirates. Once Zethrid's main ship is captured and the Olkari apprehended Acxa with Shiro is seen questioning him, and they later go to confront Zethrid, who has captured Keith and is holding him hostage at the edge of a cliff over magma. Acxa attempts to deescalate the situation by reasoning with Zethrid about their past, but Zethrid refuses, and points her gun to shoot, much to Acxa's and Shiro's surprise. This is prevented by Veronica knocking out Zethrid, who is saved from falling into the magma by Keith. Later on Acxa confronts Zethrid in her cell, presenting Ezor, whose breakup with Zethrid had been the source of Zethrid's attack. In "Genesis," Acxa appears at the IGF-Atlas conference room, shown to be shocked at the information that the paladins have gathered about Honerva's mecha from Olkarion. Later, she joins the MFEs and Veronica at the festival in "Clear Day," where she is seen confused at a carnival game, then apparently interested in James's prize. She is then present in "Uncharted Regions," where she is present in Keith's and Pidge's debriefing. Finally, in "the End is the Beginning," Acxa along with Zethrid and Ezor, are present at Keith's speech to the galra. In the credits, a freeze frame of her, Keith, Zethrid, and Ezor depicts Acxa and the others helping with the humanitarian relief effort, with Acxa, Ezor, and Zethrid now as members of the Blade of Mamora. Appearance Acxa is half-galra, which is reflected in her appearance. While bearing blue skin, pointed ears, sharp claws, and sharp cat-like eyes with yellow sclera found commonly in galra, she is also notably short for a galra, and bears blue and white colored pupils. She also has four and later two horn-like projections on her head, the later 2 curled out as they grew out in s7 and 8. She wears blue lipstick and slicks her hair back with a part hanging on the front as a side fringe. She is notably more humanoid than most galra, which again might be a result of her half-galra heritage. Her original outfit throughout seasons 2-6 is consistent with the uniforms of her fellow generals. It’s comprised of fragmented black armor with orange and blue highlights over a grey bodysuit. Acxa’s outfit has boots with a ridge on the top of the foot, as well as additional armor on her ankles, neck and wrists. Her hair becomes longer and outfit changes to a Coalition-based one come season 7. The aesthetics include a burgundy colored suit and crop-top jacket with long boots. She also upgrades her technology, which now bears the yellow, orange, and sea green colors that are mainly associated with the Voltron Coalition. At the end of the credits of "the End is the Beginning," she dons the Mamoran outfit, signifying how she has joined the Blade of Mamora. The design of her personal blade, however, is currently unknown. Personality Acxa has a notably serious and dilligent demeanor, and is intensely focused on her work, while refusing to break from what she plans to do. She gets annoyed when others, such as Zethrid, get distracted or otherwise distract her, as what happened in "Tailing a Comet," where Zethrid's repeated insisting to break from the plan frustrates her and she snaps at her. She is also highly intelligent. She is knowledgeable of many scientific facts including those in subjects such as in chemistry. People making incorrect judgements or stating incorrect facts bothers her, and she is quick to correct them. This is the case in the Hunted, when Zethrid is frustrated that Lotor isn't attacking the paladins, Acxa is quick to clarify that he cannot. For synthian nitrate - the gas that he was currently driving through - was highly combustible and if he were to attack, it would explode. She also corrects Ezor in Hole in the Sky for making the error of calling the alternate reality "another dimension," much to Ezor's annoyance. When asked about Thayserix, Acxa explains the geology of the planet, and why Lotor would choose it as the location to lead the voltron paladins to. Acxa is shown to a very loyal person with a high moral code. She was strongly loyal to Lotor when she served under him and believed him to be just. She would often get offended on his behalf when someone would slight him and even struggled to betray him when Lotor killed Narti. Even after she lost her trust for Lotor, Acxa was still a loyal person, who now had been loyal to Keith, who had shown himself to be the person Lotor claimed he was. In addition, Acxa values others' lives, and is one of the few "villains" to not have killed someone in-show. In "Red Paladin," she orders the other generals to not kill anyone on the siege at Puig. Acxa is shown to be somewhat idealistic, as she admits in "the Way Forward," that she was particularly loyal to Lotor because she thought he'd pursue peace. Even then, she is a pragmatic thinker who prefers to achieve her goals long term-wise in spite of obstacles in the short term. This in particular got her to follow Lotor's plan, where she and the other generals, unbeknownst to them, would participate in a plan that would get Lotor to Team Voltron and allow him to manipulate Allura, in spite how how he killed Narti. Her loyalty to Lotor would eventually get her to hyper-focus on her rage and anger at the world who discriminated her for being half-galra. After she cut ties with Lotor, she would stick to her moral code and refuse to join Ezor and Zethrid in pirating, instead opting to support the resistance any way she can. She even is willing to fight her former friends if it meant that she saves Voltron and its paladins. And yet, in "the Grudge," after a pep talk with Veronica, she would get the courage to try mend ties with Zethrid and convince her to change, whom later on she promises to give up on. Acxa is socially awkward, often misinterpreting social situations and conversations. This is the case in "the Red Paladin," where she mistakes the Puigian Leader's question about Lotor's identity as a slight against him. This is further emphasized in "the Grudge," where she unintentionally makes the conversations she has with the the Atlas crew and later with the MFE pilots grim with unintentionally dark anecdotes about her past. She is shown to often misrepresent the intentions of people, shown by her reaction to the Pugian Leader but also to Veronica's constant followings, interpreting them as Veronica not trusting her instead of wanting to be her friend. Season 7 and 8 also go on to depict Acxa's strong resentment of her past actions and of Lotor. The former leading her to save voltron but also doubts that the galra, and therefore she herself, would be able to change and mend their past mistakes. Skills and Abilities Acxa is a master markswoman, typically using her Galran energy blaster with high proficiency, with the ability to hit her target from difficult angles and while moving. She is a also a great leader, able to coordinate her friends into a capable fighting force and get them to follow their plan. Acxa emphasizes speed over raw power in a fight, charging headfirst into enemy fire, using her superior speed to evade their projectiles by incredibly thin margins. Her fighting style in a lot of ways resembles that of Keith's, where both are reliant on quick, deliberate attacks with high avoidance. In fighting Keith himself, Acxa is evenly matched, as she and Keith both are unable to break away from the lock their weapons get into when they clashed and needed outside intervention to separate them. Acxa is also adept at using various forms of technology to aid her in battle. In "Red Paladin," she uses energized markers on the ground to create a barrier that she turns on from her wrist band to entrap hostages on Puig. In "The Way Forward", she uses a sort of whip sourced from her arm band to trap Ezor's leg and drop her onto the floor. In addition to combat, Acxa uses this arm band - also a computer - to hack into technology and view the layout of the ship she's aboard on, as seen in "The Way Forward." In "The Belly of the Weblum," she uses it to make her trapped fighter explode. Her piloting skills are high enough that she is trusted with a Sincline ship, as well as fighter jet for harvesting scaultrite from a Weblum - an extraordinary dangerous task. Trivia * Acxa is part Galran; her other alien heritage is unknown. * It was revealed in the episode "Tailing a Comet" that she was the Galra pilot that helped Keith and Hunk in "The Belly of the Weblum". Her former allies insult her for potentially having feelings for him, but whether this is true remains to be shown. Series staff have described their relationship as a warrior's respect based on honor, which she believed Lotor had, but learned only Keith was genuine about.Rotoscopers: "‘Voltron: Legendary Defender’ Showrunners Talk Season 7, Shiro, & More", August2018 * She is the shortest of the generals, just standing a little below Narti in height. * When Keith first met her in "The Belly of the Weblum", he assumed she was a male. * She makes a cameo appearance in "Day Forty-Seven," where, if one were to look closely at the scene where Kinkade and Rizavi are in the security room filled detailing footage from what one can assume are security cameras, she can be seen using the firing range in one of them. * She is voiced by Anika Noni Rose until The Hunted, where she is voiced Erica Luttrell thereafter. This change remains unexplained. * Acxa's name was originally either "Ythorod" or "Aihpos", but was changed when Studio Mir pointed out to series staff that it was a name common to old women spelled backwards; it was intentional on the writers' part as being a reference to The Golden Girl's along with "Esor", spelling "Rose", "Dorothy", and "Sophia".AfterBuzzTV with Joaquim Dos Santos and Lauren Montgomery * For Lotor's generals, series staff went with a standard RPG team format; Acxa is intended to be the loyal knight acting as the right-hand to the team leader.Rotoscopers with Joaquim Dos Santos and Lauren Montgomery, August 2017 * On an interview with AfterBuzz TV, it was revealed by the creators Lauren Montgomery and Joaquim Dos Santos that in the original draft for season 7, Acxa had meant to replace Hunk as the Yellow Paladin after he would reunite with his family and then sacrifice himself to save the Earth by bringing up the Altean mecha to space so it would explode outside of the atmosphere. This was removed as the executives didn't want another girl on Team Voltron. The creators would go on to admit that other aspects of her character arc was removed because of time constraints. References Category:Characters Category:Voltron: Legendary Defender characters Category:Galra Category:Galra Officers Category:Galra Generals Category:Females Category:Voltron Coalition Category:Blade of Marmora